Future Tense
by Rhyno304
Summary: This is a TNGEnterprise crossover. Trip T'pol eventually, mild Riker Troi. I have now passed the point that I had written and am going into vaguely charted territory. On Hiatus
1. Chapter 1

Spoilers- not really much except general Enterprise through season 2. General knowledge of TNG is taken for granted.

Disclaimer: I have nothing at all to do with Rodenberry's glorious creation in all its many facets.

Summary: The first crew of the starship Enterprise meets their 24th century counterparts.

A/N: I have enjoyed all of the Star Trek stories except the f!nale of Enterprise. I am not a super trekkie, however, so please be kind. Comments are appreciated. If someone flames me, so be it. I am a big T/T shipper, but will try to keep the hot alien sex down to a minimum.

A/N 2: This is set at the beginning of season 3 of Enterprise and mid season 4 of TNG. For the sake of the story, Riker and Troi have had an on-again-off-again relationship since they met again when he joined the Enterprise.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Captain Jean-Luc Picard was enjoying a nice, quiet week of surveying a newly discovered star nursery. The ship was undamaged and no one was trying to kill him; all in all it was an unusually relaxing interlude. However, he was not surprised that just as he was settling down in his quarters to catch up on a little pleasure reading, his com chirped.

"Captain, sensors have located a temporal flux in the nursery moving toward the Enterprise. I recommend you come to the bridge immediately," came the crisp, sometimes annoyingly calm voice of his second officer.

Picard sighed and closed The Once and Future King. "I will be right there Data."

As he stepped out of his quarters, he met his first officer headed to the turbo lift as well.

"Number one, have we _ever_ had a simple survey or sensor sweep?"

Will Riker smirked, "Captain I think a temporal flux _would_ be a simple survey compared to some of the things we've seen."

Jean-Luc Picard gave on brief chuckle as he stepped into the lift. "I have to agree with you on that one Will."

When they stepped on to the bridge, Picard was pleased, but not really surprised, to see the rest of his senior staff already present. Data stepped quickly from to captain's chair to his normal position at the conn.

"Status?" queried Picard.

"The anomaly appeared two minutes and fifty-three point seven seconds ago. Sensors did not pick it up immediately. It was initially perceived by the sensors as three new stars. However, when the were observed to move, I performed a more thorough scan revealing that the stars in fact range from 703,506.75 to 3,684,359.81 years old. At that time, I notified the senior staff to come to the bridge. I also ordered Ensign Crusher to keep us six thousand kilometers from the anomaly. At that range the Enterprise should be unaffected by the anomaly and still be able to run scans of it," reported the ever-efficient android.

"Can we assume that as well as being a temporal anomaly, it is also a spatial disturbance?" asked an intrigued Picard.

"That is unknown at this time sir only three stars are visible through the anomaly. That is insufficient to determine the exact coordinated seen," reported Data after checking his navigational charts.

"If it is a temporal anomaly, can you determine the time period it is connected to?" asked Will Riker as intrigued as his captain. After all, phenomenons like this were what kept him on Enterprise after being offered many captain chairs. That is, in addition to the half-Betazoid on the opposite side of Picard.

"That is also unknown at this time. By going closer to the temporal flux, it is theoretically possible to answer both questions, but we are likely to get caught in the flux ourselves if we get too close," answered Data.

Not one to be intimidated by the possibility of danger when confronted with a mystery, Picard had already made up his mind as to his course of action. "Mr. Crusher, take us closer, half impulse."

Still nervous after all this time being on the bridge the young man at the helm punched the commands into his station, "Aye, sir. Half impulse."

"Captain, sensors are picking up a ship inside the anomaly," said the Klingon standing at the tactical station behind Picard.

"Can we get a visual?" asked the first officer.

Before doing putting up the enhanced picture of the unknown ship, Worf double-checked the sensor readings, seeing something that had to be a mistake. He knew this ship but it was hard to believe. Being the only Klingon in Starfleet had its drawbacks, but moments like this made it all worth it. As he put up the visual he reported his suspicions to the whole bridge, "I believe I have identified the ship as well as the time period."

When the picture of the vessel went up on the view screen, a collective gasp was heard on the bridge as well as a soft "Merde sainte" from the captain.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N please review also if anyone knows a good klingon translation site, please tell me

Oh, just realized, I need a beta. Someone who knows alot about Enterprise and TNG, please. Call me!

I have most of the next chapter ready, but I am going to work on it a bit more. Please review!


	2. Chapter 2

Future Tense Ch.2

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except an active imagination.

A/N: Thank you to Dhot, Olivia Solar, and natalie s, y'all were my first reviewers ever! As such, you will now be characters in the story. As for the other 252 of y'all that read but didn't review, you missed your chance. As of this moment, I am without a beta. Any takers?

A/N2: Thank you JadziaKathryn for your editing suggestion. I have fixed the problem.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Charles Tucker the third was mad. Not only had his baby sister been killed during the attack on Earth, but now something else from the Delphic Expanse was hurting someone he loved. "Shit! One day out here and already you're acting up. We clean you up and take you somewhere nice and you still don't want to behave. Just when I need you the most you turn on me. Ain't that just like a woman!" ranted the NX-01's chief engineer.

"Commander, I do not believe that talking to the warp engine will fix it," said a calm, measured voice behind Trip.

"No, T'Pol but it will make me feel better. And if you can't help me fix her, get out of engineering," he snapped back.

T'Pol was taken aback by the harshness of Commander Tucker's response. After two years living on a human starship, she had developed an amiable relationship with many of her crewmates. Her relationship with the cheerful engineer had started out adversarial, but had evolved into a mutual respect and acceptance fueled by light, meaningless arguments, or as he called them "spats". He had not spoken to her this harshly since the Enterprise had first set out to return the Klingon, Klaang, to Qonos. While he had held her at phaser-point during the incident on the abandoned M-class planet, neither of them was in their right minds and the occasion was not spoken of between them.

Trip sighed. He knew that he had hurt T'Pol without meaning to. He also knew that she would not admit that he had hurt her. "Listen T'Pol, I am a little tense right now, but that is no reason for me to talk to you like that. You know how you say humans are controlled by their emotions? Well, mine are a little chaotic right now, so please just bare with me until I get things sorted out."

"If you are not in control of yourself, it is illogical for you to be working on the engine right now. You could injure yourself or the ship," T'Pol said looking down at the panel readout in front of her.

"Awww, I didn't know you cared so much," countered Trip. T'Pol just looked up and raised an eyebrow. Before she could say anything regarding the duties of a first officer, Trip went on, "Besides, tinkering with things helps me sort out my thoughts. Kinda like your meditation."

"How do you know about Vulcan meditation?" asked T'Pol, intrigued that he knew anything about her culture.

"I may be from the South, but that don't mean I'm ignorant. When Jon told me that you were gonna be staying on with us, I started to read up on Vulcan culture, at least the little that's in our database. Plus, you've mentioned more than a couple times how you are 'in need of meditation' or that I have commed you while you were 'merely meditating'. I know how to put two and two together."

Trip was happy to see that he had surprised the usually unflappable first officer. She was so stunned by his comment that she forgot to mention how his "math skills have nothing to do with knowledge of Vulcan culture". He was for the millionth time grateful that he had begun paying attention to her reactions to his barbs. He knew she wasn't quite the ice queen she appeared to be. Of course, trying to find chinks in her emotional armor wasn't the only reason he paid so close attention to her, but that's something he kept to himself.

T'Pol did not know how to respond to his revelations. Commander Tucker had been paying close attention to her for a while, even going so far as to study Vulcan culture. Why was he doing this? Why does the thought of him paying attention to her seem… satisfying? A ripple of unease spread through her thoughts. She decided she would have to meditate an extra hour to regain control of her mental processes. His comment had stirred some sort of emotion in her. She ignored it for the time being and touched a portion of the screen in front of her. "If you bypass section 1701 of the fourth intake duct, it should be possible to reach warp 2."

Trip leaned over her shoulder, knowing it would make her uncomfortable and replied, "Yeah, I already got Anna working on that, but what I want to know is how it malfunctioned in the first place."

His warm breath in her left ear sent shivers down T'Pol's spine that she could not suppress completely. "Commander Tucker, if you have indeed studied Vulcan culture, or even human culture, you would have undoubtedly heard the term 'personal space' and how it is considered unseemly and even rude to approach another's space."

Lt. Anna Hess smiled as she approached her two superior officers. She was considered one of the few insiders to this unique relationship, as they seemed to have most of their "discussions" in engineering. They really were quite the pair, both with a passion, in T'Pol's case more repressed but still strong, for science and both stubborn as hell. She hoped that Trip asked T'Pol out soon or the month's worth of pay she put into Hoshi's pool would be out the exhaust ports. Out loud she said, "Bypass is done chief. We should be able to get to warp 2 now."

"Thanks, Anna, Jon will be happy to hear that when he wakes up."

Sub-commander T'Pol went to the nearby comm unit and alerted Lieutenant Reed, who was in command, of the restoration of the warp drive.

"Understood, Sub-Commander," answered Malcolm Reed in his cultured British accent. "Ensign Natalies, resume our previous heading at warp one point five."

"One point five, aye sir"

Malcolm settled into the captain's chair, one he hoped one day to call his own. Being a tactical officer was wonderful, but the captain had the final say in everything. Observing the actions of Captain Archer and Sub-Commander T'Pol had given him new insights into possibilities in combat. While he still preferred blowing things up, he had learned the necessity of more diplomatic solutions. He only hoped that the Marine Assault Commandos understood this fact. His own security force had more experience in the realm of intergalactic dealings, but he knew their new assignment would require out-and-out warfare. As such, he was willing to give the MACOs a chance to prove their worth.

"Lieutenant, there is a weird distortion ahead," came a voice from over his left shoulder. That would be Ensign Makin, the third shift science officer and one of the few other British members of the crew. She had been deemed an "adequate" member of the science department, high praise indeed coming from the hard-to-please Vulcan.

"Can you qualify 'weird' Ensign?"

"I am not sure what to make of it. I have never seen anything like it. It is almost like a hole but not exactly? I recommend the Sub-Commander take a look. She could probably discern more from these readings"

Malcolm took one look at the confused look on the young science officer's face and decided that she was in desperate need of help. She looked like she had never had a problem she didn't know how to fix and suddenly her world was completely turned around. Pressing one of the buttons on the arm of the command chair Reed called on the ship-wide frequency, "All senior officers, please report to the bridge." Turning to the helm, he told Natalies to hold position at two thousand kilometers from the "hole".

By that time, Ensign Hoshi Sato had arrived and taken over the communications section and Sub-Commander T'Pol was conferring with Ensign Makin regarding the phenomenon.

As Jonathan Archer stepped onto the bridge, he thanked God once again for the opportunity to captain the Enterprise. The sight of the crew flawlessly working together filled him with pride. As he approached Lt. Reed, he heard Crewman Solar from the tactical station mention something that caught his attention.

"What to you mean photonic emissions? Isn't that what our new torpedoes put off?" Archer asked. "Is it possible there is a ship? Wait Olivia, before you answer that, Malcolm, what is the exact situation?"

The Englishman stood straighter upon hearing his Captain's voice and reported the situation crisply.

"A 'hole' T'Pol?" Archer asked, turning to the Vulcan now standing alone at the science station.

"Ensign Natalies' description of the phenomenon is vague, but as accurate as can be ascertained with the data we have obtained," answered the first officer.

"And now, Olivia, what was that you mentioned about photonic emissions?" The new crewman looked amazed, pleased, and a touch embarrassed that the Captain even knew her name. She glanced at Lieutenant Reed, seeking his permission to share her findings. At his nod of assent, she reported, "When Ensign Natalies first reported the phenomenon, I took the liberty of performing a tactical scan, searching for any man-made causes of the 'hole'. I observed that there is some sort of emissions coming at regular intervals that on the surface appear to be photonic. However, upon comparing my readings with those from the scientific scans, the emissions are almost…" She looked down as she trailed off.

"Almost what, crewman," Archer said kindly but firmly.

She looked up, seemingly frightened of his response to her answer. "They reminded me of a class last year at the Academy about quantum mechanics and how photonic particles can be at two different places at once or can jump long distances seemingly instantaneously. It is on those calculations that the transporter was made. But this looks like a modified form, like an extra variable was added in, an extra dimension to the equation."

"By the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract," said the chief engineer, causing the entire bridge to turn and stare. "Don't tell me none of y'all got that! Okay, I know what Crewman Solar is referring to. Time travel."

"The Vulcan Science Directorate ha-"

"You honestly don't still believe that crap after all we've seen. This could be how these 'beings from the future' are getting through to our time."

Archer saw the coming argument and stopped it before it really got going. "Regardless to the existence of time travel, the fact that it is something never seen before is noteworthy." By this time the alpha shift or "first team" as Trip referred to them had taken over from the junior crewmen. "Travis take us in closer to the hole."

"Aye captain"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N #2: Next chapter will have the two crews meeting. I will definitely have a logic-off between Data and T'Pol, which was one of my reasons for starting this fic.

I live off reviews; ideas, critiques, encouragements, and even flames are welcome. Just tell me what you think


	3. Chapter 3

Future Tense Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own it, wish I did, would have torn up the TATV script.

A/N: Ok, I know I promised a logic-off, but it won't be in this chapter. I still need more info. Any Trekkies willing to help? I'll keep asking until I get an answer. Anyway, this chapter is more development of the crews' mindsets. There will be actual communication between the two crews next chapter! Reviews, critiques, laudes and flames make Ch.4 come quicker!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Captain, tactical scans are picking up a large, metallic mass."

T'pol turned around to look into her viewer. After a brief pause, she straightened up, turned around and said in a voice with a hint of surprise, "It appears to be a large ship."

"A ship! Can we get a visual?"

The young Japanese woman on Archer's left shook her head, "But it should be possible to make an voice-only communication. If we got closer, I could pull a visual up."

Although Archer did not like talking to someone he couldn't see, it was better than wondering, "Try to hail them, Hoshi, and keep working on getting a visual. Travis, move us closer."

"Aye sir, moving ahead, three-quarters impulse," responded the young helmsman. This was the kind of thing he lived for: first contact. Growing up on a J-class cargo hauler gave him more interstellar experience than most of the crew, but there was something special about a first contact.

For her part, Hoshi Sato was too busy worrying about the technical aspect of her assignment to care about the intentions of the strange ship. Leave that to Malcolm and the Captain. She was responsible for getting them the information to make the big decisions. And right now, she was having trouble getting that information. "Captain, there seems to be some sort of energy distortion around the ship, but I can get a rough picture."

"Ensign Sato, send you readings to my station and I will attempt to cut through the distortion," came the voice of the only other female on the senior staff. Early on in the mission, Hoshi would have taken T'Pol's request to be a challenge of Hoshi's skills, but she now knew that T'Pol merely desired to help using her own skills. It made the tension between the two "alpha females" lessen when they worked together.

"Captain, the distortion appears to be some sort of energy shield, covering the entire ship," said T'Pol after a few seconds of study.

"A shield?" asked the armory officer. "Are they expecting an attack? Do you want me to ionize the hull and charge weapons, sir?" Malcolm's natural paranoia had only been increased by two years worth of interstellar travel. Too many times, Enterprise had been attacked without provocation.

"Malcolm, keep your shirt on. Our weapons wouldn't have any effect on those shields if I'm reading this data right. Even if by some miracle we got the shields down, we couldn't take on something this big," said Trip now at the science station looking at the readings. As Enterprise approached the unknown ship, more data became available to him. The ship was huge. It made Enterprise look like a Shetland pony next to a Clydesdale. "Hoshi, you should be able to get visual now."

The young woman pressed two buttons and the ship appeared on the screen.

Wesley Crusher had never heard Captain Picard curse. Even in the most chaotic of situations, his was the cool head; he never panicked. All the other officers on the bridge seemed stunned by the ship on screen. It had two nacelles and a saucer section, making it in all likelihood a Starfleet vessel. But it was small and looked almost piecemeal instead of the neat, streamlined vessels the Utopia Planetia shipyards put out. Could it be a cargo ship copying the Starfleet basic design? Then, the ship turned so that its bow was pointed toward the Enterprise. Enterprise? NX-01? Now Wes understood the Captain's "holy shit". That was Captain Archer's ship. The one who started the talks leading to the Federation. How the hell had this happened?

Data knew the magnitude of this ship's importance to the crew. Captain Picard even had a model of it in his ready room. Supposedly it was a tradition for each new Enterprise Captain to pass on these models. Lieutenant Worf was undoubtedly eager to meet Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, the man who had brought about the Red Alert, sometimes called the Reed Alert, and the energy shields; both of those items had saved many of ships from destruction. Geordi would want to meet the only man he considered close to Zephram Cochrane's intelligence: the NX-01's chief engineer, Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker. But did the Prime Directive prevent these meetings? That gave him something to process while gathering as much information from the scans as he could.

Today would be a great day to die. Worf would soon get to meet two men he considered honorable warriors. Malcolm Reed's Interstellar Security and Tactics was still required reading for the Academy. Growing up on a human colony, Worf had only heard bits and pieces of his species' history. What he had heard was obviously tainted by the fear that the Klingon Empire instilled. When he was accepted to Starfleet Academy, he took extra time to study the mission reports of all encounters with Klingons, starting with the courier Klaang crashing in an Oklahoma cornfield. Captain Archer's logs painted the Klingons as aggressive and suspicious, but honorable and loyal to their Empire. The Klingon version of human interactions made up most of his personal library. Throughout all of the Klingon records, one thing struck him about Archer: though the Klingons of those times didn't like him, they respected him. Any being who earned the respect of one of the more aggressive and xenophobic generations was a man worthy of honor. Worf could think of no time that he was more excited to say, "Captain, we are being hailed."

Before Picard could respond, his second officer turned around and said, "Captain, I recommend that we either do not respond, or respond with audio only."

"Why is that Data?"

"Sir, I do not believe that the man who wrote the Prime Directive would want us to break it with him."

Picard knew was Data meant, but these were humans, not to mention historically important humans. "Data, in any of the NX-01's logs did they mention an encounter like this?"

"Searching… There is no mention in any official logs regarding a ship resembling the NCC 1701-D. However, shortly after entering the Delphic Expanse in the third year of the NX-01's mission, a personal log of Commander Charles Tucker mentions the possibility of separating the saucer section from the rest of the ship and designating a 'battle bridge'. That is the first mention in any Starfleet logs about doing so."

"Is it possible that they DID meet us, and therefore we can contact them?"

"That is one possibility."

A calm, female voice came from Captain Picard's left side. "Captain, the NX-01's crew is quite paranoid at this time. One of them thinks we mean to harm them and wants to launch a preemptive strike. Another is reserving judgment, but is wary of this region of space." Deanna Troi had refrained from speaking until now, but that did not mean she was not working. Since the ship was detected, she had been passively scanning the minds of those on board. Two in particular had caught her attention. Luckily, they were quite close together and so easier to compare. They even seemed to have a tenuous link, much like the one she perceived between the Captain and Beverly Crusher. One mind seemed friendly at first, but was burying a lot of grief and anger. He seemed to have a directed hatred ready to be unleashed. Deanna would hate to be on the receiving end of that much anger. The other, more orderly, mind tried to block her probe, but collapsed without much effort on her part. This mind was the one that really scared her. Though it was orderly, that order was being threatened by fear, loneliness, a hint of self-hatred, and a desire for acceptance and love. It was a mind on the verge of collapse. "I recommend we DO contact them in order to assuage their fears and also to drop our shields. We do have a larger ship than them and our shields could be seen as a threatening gesture."

"Will, any suggestions?" asked Picard, turning to his right.

"I think the benefits will definitely outweigh the costs, but I think any face-to-face meetings will need to be on board their ship to lessen the cultural impact."

"Agreed. Mr. Worf, answer the hail, audio only," ordered the Captain, turning back to face the screen showing a piece of history.

A/N #2: Did anyone get my allusion in the last chapter? Come on, somebody? Anybody? I'll make you a character!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Disclaimer: me hab nudden

A/N: Thank you to all who have reviewed! Scifi Girl, you got the prize for catching the Wrinkle in Time reference. PM me with your name and I will put you on the 1701-D. Every reader, your input will make the next chapter come faster!

"Damn, she's a beauty!" Commander Tucker said under his breath.

"Commander Tucker, in your aesthetic judgment of the vessel did you notice the markings on the bow?" queried T'Pol, who was the only one close enough to hear what he said.

"Enter…what the hell? And it's in English with Arabic numbers. NCC 1701 D?" Trip shouted. He turned to the Vulcan next to him who was busy scanning readouts and data streams, grinned, and said in a low voice. "The Vulcan Science Directorate has determined that time travel is impossible! I wish they were here now, cause I see a vessel with human design and a human name that could rival some of y'all's battle cruisers."

"It is indeed an impressive ship but for all we know it could be manned by a culture who developed parallel to your own but at a faster pace. Ensign Sato could, no doubt, give you many examples of cultures on your own world which, though separated by large distances, still developed much of the same architecture, technology, and philosophies, albeit at different paces," responded the Vulcan, purposefully not looking up from her readouts.

"Okay, I'll give you that, but didn't your scientists say that our vessels wouldn't work because of a 'faulty design'? Well there you see the perfection of the design there."

Hoshi's voice broke through Jonathan Archer's amazement at the ship on the screen, "Captain, our hail has been answered, but with audio only."

"They don't want us to see what they look like. Could they be Xindi, trying to copy our ship designs in order to infiltrate the system?" Malcolm's last question completely broke the entire bridge's awe of the vessel.

"Put them through, Hoshi. This is Captain Jonathan Archer of the starship Enterprise. Who are you and why don't you establish visual contact with us?" Archer was now in full captain mode.

A voice came through in perfect English, no pause for the translater. It sounded cultured with a British accent, "My name is Jean-Luc Picard, captain of this Enterprise and while I are not averse to a visual meeting, I believe that it would be better for all involved if it took place on your vessel."

Will Riker would never cease to be amazed by Captain Picard. Here he was, communicating with a Starfleet legend, and was seemingly as calm as if he were pruning grape vines. Captain Archer's voice sounded hard and angry, not at all like the recorded speeches that were in the curriculum for command studies.

"We would prefer if you would drop your shields. As it is you seem to have us at a tactical disadvantage." Why was Captain Archer worried about tactics at a time like this?

"Certainly. Would you rather we transport over or use a shuttle?" It seemed that Captain Picard had picked up on Captain Archer's suspiciousness and was doing his best to appease his predecessor.

"Drop your shields and I'll consider it. Archer out."

"Well that was abrubt."

"I fear it did not go as well as I had hoped it would, Number One," responded the Captain with a hint of weariness in his voice.

"On the contrary, sir, you have assuaged some of their fears by readily agreeing to drop our shields. Also by wanting to meet on their ship, you have given up an advantage. Captain Archer is no longer unfriendly, he is more indifferent," stated Deanna from the other side of the Captain.

"Now the ball is in their court," came a crisp voice from the conn. Everyone stared at the android. "Did I not use the idiom in the correct situation?" he asked, wanting clarification.

"Sir, their shields are down. Multiple torpedo tubes, multiple, high-powered phaser banks. The specs are somewhat similar to our own, but slightly different, like major upgrades. The power output of one phaser alone is enough to knock us out."

Damn that Malcolm, he judged everything on destructive power alone. Trip had already decided that the other Enterprise couldn't be all that bad. No bad guy would be caught dead in a ship that gorgeous. "Malcolm, just stop, we gave them a pretty bold request, and they played ball. I for one can't wait to meet this Picard guy."

"Trip, you, T'Pol and Malcom go down to the transporter platform with a couple of MACO's. Hoshi get me audio again," ordered Jon after a brief pause. As Trip walked off of the bridge, he heard Picard's voice again.

That's weird, a guy with a British accent and a French name. "Hey Mal, there that many of y'all Brits with French names? I thought y'all didn't really get along that well."

Malcolm Reed had just about had enough for one day; between Major Hayes wanting to take over ship's security and Commander Tucker not giving a damn about it, he was on a short fuse. Ignoring Commander Tucker's question for the time being, he paged security and asked for Ensigns Rigil and D'hot to meet them at the platform and prayed to God that-

"Mr. Reed, the captain instructed you to have MACO's as a security precaution." That did it.

"Listen here, security is my department, not Hayes'. If you want him to be security, so be it, but until I am ordered otherwise, I run security and I will assign appropriate precautions, _not_ Hayes!"

The ferocity of his statement took both his commanding officers by surprise, so much so that when he turned and walked off toward the platform they were pressed to catch up to him. "Mal, if you are having trouble with Hayes, let the Captain know, but don't take it out on T'Pol. Is that understood, _Lieutenant_?" Trip used Malcolm's rank in order to press the point, but the conversation would have to be continued later 'cause they were now approaching the transporter where Kent Rigil and Marina D'hot were waiting. One thing Trip had learned from watching Jon: never let the noncom's see officer's arguing.

"Captain, the NX-01 is reestablishing audio contact."

"Put them through, Mr. Worf. Picard here."

"We will transport two of your crew over here."

"Understood, we will be on our tranporter platform, I on my way now. Any problems can be addressed to my first officer, Commander Riker."

"Deanna, come with me." As Deanna followed the Captain into the turbolift, she glanced back at her imzahdi. 'Be safe' she heard through their tenuous telepathic connection.

Then, Will turned back to the viewscreen to study the NX-01.

As they made their way to transporter room one, she probed the captain, "Sir, may I ask why you wanted me to come with you, and not one of the other officers? I know very little of Earth's history, and don't have the fascination with the early hero's of Starfleet. Lieutenant LaForge or Commander Riker or even Lieutenant Worf know more of this crew than I do."

"That is precisely why I want you with me. You will be seeing Charles Tucker, Jonathan Archer, and Malcolm Reed with fresh eyes. None of the tall tales will be affecting your judgement." With the last statement, he ushered her through the doors to the transporter room where Miles O'Brien was waiting. "Will our transporters align with theirs'?"

"Yes, sir, but it will be a bit tricky. Looking at these specs, it's amazing they didn't lose anyone's matter stream back then. I'm going to hold you in a buffer as a backup," said the curly-haired Irishman.

"We would appreciate that, Mr. O'Brien."

"O'Brien to NX-01."

"Tucker here, y'all ready?"

"Two standing by"

Miles barely had time to register that it was _the_ Charles Tucker that answered the call before Captain Picard and Coucilor Troi were lost in a shimmer of light.

"Hell, is that entire ship full of Brits? Did England wind up taking over Starfleet?" Trip asked as he transported the two people from the other ship

"He sounded Irish, Trip, not English. And please don't say 'same difference'. It would be an affront to Englishmen everywhere."

Damn, Malcolm sounded on edge. If his previous outburst at T'Pol was any indication, he might need to take a break. Hell, they _all_ needed a break. Maybe when the Xindi were stopped… "I bet the Irish would say the same about y'all, Mal." All conversation stopped as two forms appeared on the transporter pad. One was a bald human male, looking about in his mid-forties. Judging by the four full pips on his collar, this would be Captain Picard. The other was a woman with long, dark curly hair. She had two full pips and another, empty one. A new rank? Not only a new rank, but new uniforms. Picard wore what looked to be slacks and a dressy shirt. Trip felt like he was ill-dressed, like wearing a mechanic's uniform in a fancy church. The woman's uniform reminded Trip of some of T'Pol's outfits: covering everything, but so form fitting that it left nothing to the imagination. As T'Pol stepped up to Picard, Trip was able to get a better look at exactly how well T'Pol's uniform fit her, just for comparison, of course…

T'Pol approached the two humans. "Welcome aboard the Earth starship Enterprise. I am T'Pol, the first officer." Gesturing toward Commander Tucker, she added, "This is the Chief Engineer, Commander Charles Tucker the Third." She glanced at Lieutenant Reed and said pointedly, "This is Lieutenant Malcolm Reed head of Security and Tactical Systems." Lieutenant Reed seemed to understand her addition of Security to his title as what it was: confidence in his abilities to maintain peace onboard the ship.

The male spoke first, " I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard and this is my diplomatic attaché, Lieutenant Commander Deanna Troi," the female stood a little straighter. "Is there someplace we can sit and talk in private?"

"The Capt'n's mess oughta hold us all. You want me to get the Capt'n while you and Malcolm show them the way?" As illogical as he at seemed, Commander Tucker occasionally had moments of rationality. This appeared to be on of those moments. T'Pol nodded her head as her answer.

"This way, please," said Lieutenant Reed, walking alongside Captain Picard.

As the female walked by, T'Pol felt a brush on her mind. This woman was obviously more than she seemed.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: First of all, I want to apologize for taking so long. I'm not going to blame it on my muse or anything like that. I am lazy by nature. But I would like to thank all those who have reviewed and given me a kick in the pants. This chap is for y'all. It's not really that good, I wrote it during my lunch break, but it will hopefully keep y'all coming back.

Disclaimer: As always, I don't own jack.

Without further ado:

Future Tense Chapter 5

Jean-Luc Picard was amazed at the size of the ship. Junior crewmen had larger bedrooms on his ship than Captain Archer's dining room. The uniforms seemed very utilitarian, more like the constriction workers at Utopia Planetia than anything else. Except the Lady T'Pol's uniform. It was a form-fitting suit that left very little to the imagination. Picard decided he best drop that line of thought before his councilor picked up on it.

When Jonathan Archer arrived at his personal dining room with Trip bouncing at his heels like a little puppy, he did not know what to expect. Trip had given him an idea, but Trip tended to be excitable about a lot of things. Malcolm, formal as always, stood when Archer entered and the bald man and brunette across from him stood as well. "Lt. Reed, please report to the bridge, I will take over from here."

Malcolm started to protest, but thought better of it. The Captain had proven that he could protect himself, as had T'Pol. Without a word, the left the Captain's Mess and proceeded to the Bridge in order to take over from Travis, who was probably jumping in the Captain's Chair by now.

The two women were sitting across from each other measuring each other up like two Klingons about to do battle. Surprisingly, to Trip anyway, it was T'Pol who broke the silence. "You are human" the way she said it left no doubt that it was not a question.

"Actually no, I am only half human. My mother is Betazoid. But Captain Picard is completely human," for a Vulcan, Lady T'Pol showed her emotions quite readily. Even Data would be able to tell that she was not very welcoming. However, T'Pol seemed to be intrigued by the idea of a human/nonhuman pairing. Deanna just smiled her usual "counsilor smile", as Will called it, and let the Captain take over the rest of the discussion, content to observe for now.

"What's a Betazoid? Don't think I've ever heard of them. Wait, no forget that. _When_ are you from. Y'all's ship is much more advanced than any I've ever seen. So y'all must be from the future," asked the engineer moving from his spot leaning up against the wall into the empty chair next to T'Pol.

"As you have guessed, we are from the future. I'm afraid that we cannot be more specific than that. We have a general order that forbids us from doing or saying anything to alter the natural course of a culture's history, even if that history is our own," answered Captain Picard.

"Then why did you contact us and agree to meet? You could have just ignored our hails and went on your way," asked Archer, who was getting tired of time traveling. It hurt his head to try to think about all the possible ways to mess up.

Picard leaned back and allowed a slight smile to grace his face, "You had already seen our ship and had no doubt already assumed the truth… That, and we looked through the history archives for the NX-01's logs and found a few days had 'disappeared' except for vague references to upgrades to the ship." Picard was pulling on every bit of 22nd century knowledge he had in order to put Archer at ease. He could see the strain in the young captain's eyes, a weariness that looked out of place. Also a hardness in both of the men's eyes that spoke of barely contained violence. Even Commander Tucker, for all his jokes, seemed on edge. You didn't need to be a telepath to know that something disastrous had occurred. "If you would, please tell me the date that you are from, so that we may know what we can and can't tell you."

"The Vulcan Science Directorate has determined that-" T'Pol abruptly stopped speaking and turned toward Commander Tucker with a raised eyebrow and shifted slightly to move her legs out of range of another nudge like she had just received.

"What T'Pol means to say is that we're gonna need some more proof 'fore all of us take you at your word," Trip glanced meaningfully at the Vulcan to his right. "Maybe we should take a trip to sick bay to make sure you are what you say you are."

"Take whatever precautions you think necessary, Commander Tucker," though Captain Picard kept a calm exterior, inside he was impatient to actually be able to discuss the phenomenon in which both ships were caught.


End file.
